Regional services smart card in Friuli Venezia Giulia (PA-ONLINE)

In 2006 the Regional Administration of Friuli Venezia Giulia started an eGovernment project, based on the Regional Services Card, to simplify communications between citizens, businesses and the Regional Public Administration. The primary goal is to make available a set of online services, not only in the Healthcare field, using the intrinsic proprieties of the smart card and implementing a strong authentication mechanism. These features represent a must in private/ public relationships in order to guarantee high level of security to all users. A slogan among all: "Digital no divide". The online services available today are 23 and concern the areas of citizens everyday lives (being citizens, working, commuting and travelling, paying on line, staying healthy, living spare time and culture) with the aim of reaching a better quality of life by improving interaction with public administration, in one word, favouring eInclusion.

Policy Context

The Project is compliant with the Italian law “DLgs 7 marzo 2005 n. 82 “Codice dell’amministrazione Digitale” and with European directive 1999/93/CE

Description of target users and groups

Target users are Friuli Venezia Giulia citizens. The Friuli Venezia Giulia Region lies in the extreme Northeast of Italy. By the end of the year it had a population of about 1.200.000 inhabitants. The effect of demographic and epidemiological transition has been particularly severe in Friuli Venezia Giulia. More than 25% of population is over the age of 65.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

This project has been developed by the Regional Administration of FVG (which lies in the extreme Northeast of Italy ) through its technical branch INSIEL, the global provider of ICT services and solutions for the Regional ICT System. Phase 1: the definition of the model of interaction with the National Revenue Agency The first step was the necessary definition of a model of interaction with the National Revenue Agency, which was assigned the production and distribution of the smart cards on behalf of the FVG Region. Phase 2: the definition of the comprehensive model The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance refers to the Regional Services Card model of the FVG Region as the standard for services cards at a national level. The organizational model defined represents the basis for a new card management system which can easily be exported not only in other Italian regions but also in other European countries. Phase 3: the development of the Card Management System (CMS) The Card Management System was developed in the third phase, setting the technological infrastructure capable of managing the entire card life cycle, linked to the databases of the National Revenue Agency. Phase 4: the development of the online services On-line services have been analyzed in terms of target group, development costs, maintenance costs, ROI, usability. The most convenient services have been developed first, in order to make them available for the first citizen card users.

Technology solution

With reference to Interoperability (IO) and Application Cooperation, the PA-ONLINE objectives are: establish the secure interconnection of Public Administrations, guarantee data exchange and application cooperation across all PA, implement and test standard protocols and formats for data exchange in a number of critical application/business domains for the delivery of services to end users. AC is based on the exchange of messages between systems/applications based in different organisational domains, but usually in the same business domain. In order for it to work, the exchange of messages must be based on shared rules. Specifically, the messages must have a standard and shared format at Regional level. PA-ONLINE therefore addresses two levels of complexity: one at the infrastructural level, which deals with the general mechanisms and services for the exchange of messages across different business domains; the other, closely linked to the business domain, which deals with the message’s content and is addressed by Application Integration Services. IO and AC services must guarantee that the application services belonging to different Authorities can talk to each other, according to the interaction paradigms and to the collaboration profiles which have been chosen for cooperation at national level. With it’s subproject Interprana, PA-ONLINE contributes to SEMIC-EU. Technology choice: Mainly (or only) open standards

Main results, benefits and impacts

1.2 million smart cards distributed (covering entire population), 50.000 smart card readers for families, training for housewives and retired persons, money granted for PC purchasing (50% of value, max 500,00 €), are only a few numbers of the project. - Health services (GPs, Chemists, Hospitals, clinical exams, …) - School and University services (exams, …) - Employment services (employment communications, job vacancies, …) - On-line payments, (web-based, POS, … ) - Municipalities services The main benefits have been obtained in Health Care subsystem. One of the most important results will be the patients Electronic Health Record made available through web technology. Also, common standards for interoperability and exchange between information systems have been defined. The impact study we have done analysed the activity of 150 GPs (10% of total) and was subsequently projected on the total number of patients and GPs. We have estimated a gain of 360 person/year for patients and 71 person/year for GPs and an economic gain of 2.5% for local Healthcare institutions. User satisfaction has been evaluated in two population surveys reporting general satisfaction about the quality and benefits of the new electronic services. The Regional call-centre receives 3.000 phone calls daily and makes bookings for half of them. This part of the system is used by help desk and call centre operators. The call centre employees give telephone assistance to citizens who have queries concerning the RSC and to front-office operators, providing them with the technical support eventually needed. 787 operators

Return on investment

Return on investment: €1,000,000-5,000,000

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 – Be transparent. Always put target group interests first. Feedback is essential: listening is more valuable than talking. Lesson 2 – Do the right thing at the right time. Roadmap the project first, lead in the right direction after. Lesson 3 – If you have it you’ll use it. Citizens seek on-line services because they have a smart card and they can’t wait to use it. Scope: Local (city or municipality), Regional (sub-national)